Some days don't you want to just blacklist all of .info? More spam there than anything else except maybe .com or .be, and certainly a higher percentage than any other top-level domain.
Agreed but I have too many clients of mine that use them. Heck, they’re still cheap. I can get renewals on them for two bucks with my registar for a year. I have a couple of hundred of them. Maybe someday I’ll actually use them.
I will admit to owning a .info domain too (http://ivant.info) but it seems a lot of my spam is coming from .ru and .pl so I haven’t noticed huge amount from .info. I’ve been blocking most email from .kr for a while because of spam…
Heh, well, I thought I want to register one domain, then I found out that only .info from gTLDs was available, and somehow immediately I rejected the idea. Not because of any opinion on .info general content, but simply because it sucks. Who would ever want a website with .info attached?
I own a .info domain (needssome.info) – it’s mostly just used for sites that I host on behalf of other people. I know that my email filters don’t look favourably on .info and .biz domains.
I get a lot of comment spam for .info sites, but strangely enough most of my email spam comes from .biz. I wish spammers would be consistent across all mediums.
In http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1744408,00.asp has “TextDrive took other steps besides blocking comments. Hoffman had noticed that the bulk of comment spam was coming from .info domains, so TextDrive for a short time blocked all referrals to .info. Later, it created its own blacklist of .info sites to ban from sending comments to blogs.”
Of course, by blocking .info, you just make it harder for the people (like me) who run a legitimate site on a .info domain. You shouldn’t block content based on TLD; that’s taking the easy way out. There needs to be a better solution.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that these .info domains were very cheap before. Most domain registrars even offered a 1 .info domain free with a one top level domain and later on it costed equivalent to other tld domains.
But agreed these domains are much of a nuisance and most of the spam on my site comes thru them :p
.be is free? That would be news to me! For those that don’t know, .be is the top-level domain for Belgium… I am willing to believe that some people see spam from .be (as from any other top-level domain), but I wouldn’t compare it to a commercial top-level domain such as .info…
Why? Because the important thing about them is that they share *information*. They aren’t a company. They aren’t an organisation. They aren’t an ISP. The *information* is the important bit.
So to answer the question above – “Who would ever want a website with .info attached?” – me. And it actually describes a hell of a lot of sites out there, that are using other TLDs. I wish it was used more often for good.
I run a large WordPress blog on .info, 12,000+ unique visitors per month, been blogging on it regularly for years. For some reason it is difficult to get on the blog searches, but I recently e-mailed Sphere and they’ve added me on “by hand”. Apparently the default seearch-engine assumption is that anything on .info is rejected. Which is ridiculous, and shows the need for proper spidering, text-gathering and and evaluation.
Well, I ran my blog on a .info site for several years, but now that my friend’s SpamAssasin flagged me for having a .info, that was the last straw and I just went and registered a .com domain.
Agreed but I have too many clients of mine that use them. Heck, they’re still cheap. I can get renewals on them for two bucks with my registar for a year. I have a couple of hundred of them. Maybe someday I’ll actually use them.
True and sad, the TLD isn’t used for what it was created. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some kind of International Internet Law?
You know, truer words were never spoken.
Wait, haven’t you forgotten .ru?
I might have said:
“…certainly a higher percentage than any other so-called top-level domain.”
I filter out .info sources in my PubSub feeds.
Wow, that would really suck. If only I had known…
I will admit to owning a .info domain too (http://ivant.info) but it seems a lot of my spam is coming from .ru and .pl so I haven’t noticed huge amount from .info. I’ve been blocking most email from .kr for a while because of spam…
Can’t wait to get my .xxx domain finally regestered.
My blog is on a .info domain…
I use a .be for my blog (which is not spam), but only because it’s free.
I agree with Kyle about the .ru though.
I can get .INFO for free for every hosting package I bought. This is why most of .info are useless site. Sigh…
Heh, well, I thought I want to register one domain, then I found out that only .info from gTLDs was available, and somehow immediately I rejected the idea. Not because of any opinion on .info general content, but simply because it sucks. Who would ever want a website with .info attached?
Blocking .info is not attacking the cause, but actually treating the symtoms.
Really, .be? I’ve never noticed that. Being a Belgian citizen, living abroad, I think that’s quite funny, disturbing and bizarre at the same time.
I own a .info domain (needssome.info) – it’s mostly just used for sites that I host on behalf of other people. I know that my email filters don’t look favourably on .info and .biz domains.
I get a lot of comment spam for .info sites, but strangely enough most of my email spam comes from .biz. I wish spammers would be consistent across all mediums.
Kyle, .ru is a domain of country with several millions of valid users – you can’t compare it to .info (stupid marketing joke of domain).
In http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1744408,00.asp has “TextDrive took other steps besides blocking comments. Hoffman had noticed that the bulk of comment spam was coming from .info domains, so TextDrive for a short time blocked all referrals to .info. Later, it created its own blacklist of .info sites to ban from sending comments to blogs.”
So yes, sometimes.
This is all about my history.
Most of the spam I see (in the stopped-by-Akismet list
) is from .ru and .pl domains. Yet to see any from .be. Oh, wait, there’s an invitation…
.info is cheap and I believe .be and .ru are free?
It is a pity that cheap domains end up as easy throwaways for spammers.
*sigh* I hate that a bunch of jerks have to ruin things for the rest of us…
Of course, by blocking .info, you just make it harder for the people (like me) who run a legitimate site on a .info domain. You shouldn’t block content based on TLD; that’s taking the easy way out. There needs to be a better solution.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that these .info domains were very cheap before. Most domain registrars even offered a 1 .info domain free with a one top level domain and later on it costed equivalent to other tld domains.
But agreed these domains are much of a nuisance and most of the spam on my site comes thru them :p
.biz and .info probably have the highest spam/ham ratio from what I’ve seen.
.be is free? That would be news to me! For those that don’t know, .be is the top-level domain for Belgium… I am willing to believe that some people see spam from .be (as from any other top-level domain), but I wouldn’t compare it to a commercial top-level domain such as .info…
That’s extremely distressing. I have two perfectly legitimate sites on a .info domain – mainly because the .com domain name was already taken.
I have quite a few sites using .info.
Why? Because the important thing about them is that they share *information*. They aren’t a company. They aren’t an organisation. They aren’t an ISP. The *information* is the important bit.
So to answer the question above – “Who would ever want a website with .info attached?” – me. And it actually describes a hell of a lot of sites out there, that are using other TLDs. I wish it was used more often for good.
I run a large WordPress blog on .info, 12,000+ unique visitors per month, been blogging on it regularly for years. For some reason it is difficult to get on the blog searches, but I recently e-mailed Sphere and they’ve added me on “by hand”. Apparently the default seearch-engine assumption is that anything on .info is rejected. Which is ridiculous, and shows the need for proper spidering, text-gathering and and evaluation.
Well, I ran my blog on a .info site for several years, but now that my friend’s SpamAssasin flagged me for having a .info, that was the last straw and I just went and registered a .com domain.